The Non Parametric Reconstruction of Binary Black Hole Mass Evolution from GWTC-4.0 Gravitational Wave Catalog

Abstract

The distribution of binary black hole (BBH) masses and its evolution with redshift provide key insights into the different formation channels of compact objects and their dependence on cosmic time and stellar properties such as metallicity and star formation history. We present a non-parametric framework of the redshift evolution of the BBH mass distribution using the gravitational-wave (GW) catalogs GWTC-3 and GWTC-4 of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK). This method simultaneously searches for the signature of any linear and quadratic redshift evolution with respect to the low-redshift population in a Bayesian framework, taking into account the detector selection effects. We find tentative evidence for a linear redshift-dependent evolution of the mass distribution, consistent over a mass range ($m \gtrsim 50\,M_\odot$), while lower-mass systems show no significant evolution. The quadratic term remains consistent with zero, indicating that a simple linear dependence adequately describes the population up to redshift $z \sim 1$. With more GW sources in the future, this technique can reveal subtle evolutionary features in BBH populations and provide new insights into the cosmic history of black hole formation.